Apple faces communications headache as Jobs resigns

The news that Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive of Apple appears to be the end of an era. His official title may have been chief executive, but to many Steve Jobs is (or was) Apple. A man who apparently oversaw every aspect of their production and design process, the creative genius behind and omnipresent in the development of perhaps the most successful and culturally significant consumer products of the last decade: the iPod, iMac, iPhone and iPad.


So what does the future hold for arguably the single most ubiquitous brand in the world today, and a company that at one point earlier this summer was wealthier than the US Government?


Consumers of Apple’s products, typically staunch advocates and loyal supporters, will need convincing that the quality of the products and the power of the brand they have bought into (at some expense) are not about to diminish. Investors in Apple will, in turn, need to hear and see from the new chief executive the right noises about new products and new corporate ventures.

In short, Apple faces an immediate and very important communications challenge: to prove to the world that it is more than just one man.


(Tom Yazdi
Consultant
tom@linstockcommunications.com)